Middle East’s Careem is the latest ride-sharing unicorn to get an India-based tech team – TechCrunch

India is the new tech outsourcing destination for ride-hailing companies.

Southeast Asia’s Grab and Go-Jek both have sizable engineering teams in the country, and now that duo is joined by another billion-dollar company. Careem, which is based in the Middle East and valued at over $1 billion, has entered the fray after it snapped up the talent behind bus-shuttle service Commut.

The deal is a talent acquisition — ‘acquihire’ — and not Careem entry’s into India. The deal will see the team at Hyderabad-based Commut join up with Careem to work on “complex local problems” in its markets in the Middle East. Commut’s service — which the startup says served some 70,000 consumers — will be folded into rival company Shuttl .

“As Careem expands across its technology platform, we will continue to acquire and invest in high impact, relevant and values driven technology businesses and start-ups that can accelerate growth,” the company said in a statement.

Go-Jek first got into India through four acquisitions in 2016 that helped build out a tech and engineering team. It was rumored to be considering an India expansion, but instead it has stuck to Southeast Asia with an initial move into Vietnam. Go-Jek is rolling out its service in Thailand, with further expansions to both Singapore and the Philippines planned.